Alain Minc is a French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 businessman, political advisor, and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

.

Biography

Alain Minc was born in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 on April 15, 1949. He is a graduate of the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris

École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris

The École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris was created in 1783 by King Louis XVI in order to train intelligent directors of mines. It is one of the most prominent French engineering schoolsThe École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (also known as Mines ParisTech, École des Mines de...

 and the École nationale d'administration

École nationale d'administration

The École Nationale d'Administration , one of the most prestigious of French graduate schools , was created in 1945 by Charles de Gaulle to democratise access to the senior civil service. It is now entrusted with the selection and initial training of senior French officials...

.

In 1979, he became CEO of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain. In 1986, he became Vice-Chairman of CIR International and General Manager of Cerus, non-Italian affiliates of Benedetti Group. In 1991, he founded his own consultancy firm, AM Conseil. He has been the Chairman of Le Monde

Le Monde

Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

s supervisory board. He sits on the Board of Directors of Criteria CaixaCorp

Criteria CaixaCorp

Caixabank, S.A. is a financial services company, controlled with an 81% stake by Spanish savings bank La Caixa...

 since 2007. He is also a Board member of Prisa

PRISA

Promotora de Informaciones, S.A is a Spanish media conglomerate. The PRISA group was founded in 1972 by Jesús de Polanco.-Newspapers:* El País, daily newspaper* Diario AS sports newspaper* Cinco Días economic newspaper-Magazines:...

, FNAC

FNAC

FNAC may refer to:* the fine needle aspiration cytology, a medical diagnosis technique;* the Fnac, a French cultural and consumer retailer...

, Direct Energie, Ingenico

Ingenico

Ingenico S.A. is a worldwide company, whose business is to provide the technology involved in secure electronic transactions. Its traditional business is based around the manufacture of point of sale payment terminals, but it now also includes complete payment solutions and related services.It...

, and Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent may refer to:* Yves Saint Laurent , French fashion designer* Yves Saint Laurent , a luxury fashion house founded by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé...

.

He has been an advisor to Edouard Balladur

Édouard Balladur

Édouard Balladur is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 29 March 1993 to 10 May 1995.-Biography:Balladur was born in İzmir, Turkey, to an Armenian Catholic family with five children and long-standing ties to France...

, François Pinault

François Pinault

François Pinault is a French businessman who runs the retail company PPR. He is a friend of former French President Jacques Chirac....

 and Vincent Bolloré

Vincent Bolloré

Vincent Bolloré is a French industrialist, corporate raider and businessman.He heads the family investment group Bolloré and is ranked 736th richest person in the world according to Forbes, with an estimated fortune of US$1.7 billion...

. He now advises French President Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....

. He came under fire for criticizing Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI

Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...

's position on the French Romani repatriation

French Romani repatriation

The French Roma repatriation is a programme initiated in July 2010 by the Government of France to repatriate thousands of Romanian and Bulgarian Roma as part of a crackdown on illegal camps in the country...

 in 2010.

He is a member of the Nicolas Berggruen Institute. He is also a recipient of the Legion of Honour.